Scrapbook 2016

November 29, 2016

Woohoo! Another layout posted. I'm so excited that I've kept up with this album. I love that I have all the big moments and little silly moments too. Like my new Bob's Burgers cookbook. Grant and I love Bob's Burgers, so finding this at the bookstore was a fun surprise. We used it for the first time that night and I think it's so fun to have that documented.

Most of the photographs from this week were taken at night, so it was hard to make the page feel bright. Luckily, using a lot white brightened it right up! There were also a lot of interesting colors, like orange, yellow, and red. I was so happy when I found the "there's no place like home" card from an old Studio Calico kit. It tied it all together perfectly.

It was hard to find another card with matching colors, so I decided to make my own. I used a "yum" stamp from a Kelly Purkey stamp set and stamped it in a repeating pattern with gray ink on plain, white cardstock. Then, I used bigger alphabet letters to stamp yum on vellum.

The photograph of our burgers was dark and not very appetizing, so I used larger alphabet stickers to write the name of the burgers we made over the photograph. I love that it both somewhat covers the bad photo and documents what we made that night.

As usual, I used the type writer to type my journaling for the week on vellum. Stamps and alphas are so simple, but add so much to the layout. Scrapbooking doesn't need to be a ton of work. Keep it simple with easy details and captions! xo. Laura

November 23, 2016

Some weeks, it's so easy to pick a color scheme for the layout. And this week was one of those. When I printed my photos, it was easy to see that orange stood out in all the colored photos. I wanted to add other orange embellishments to really make it pop. I didn't want the layout to look to busy with a lot of color, so I kept it pretty simple with black and white.The photos were kind of busy, so I didn't really need to add much. It was Grant's birthday this week, so I wanted to make sure I included those pictures. Astro and I spent a lot of time at home working on finishing up projects, so I was able to get several fun photographs of him.

Like every week, I used my typewriter to journal on vellum. I used a card from a Messy Box kit to attach the vellum too. Since Astro was in a lot of this weeks photographs, I used gold chipboard letters from an old Messy Box kit to spell out his name on top of the journaling card. It's so fun to look back at these pages already. I can't wait to flip through them years from now and remember these first moments in our new home!

November 11, 2016

I'm so excited to finally be sharing videos with you! Here is a video of what I have so far in my 2016 Scrapbook album for January through March. Let me know in the comments here or on YouTube if you have any questions. If this inspires you to work on your album, please email me photos or tag my on Instagram!

November 02, 2016

Recently, I read Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and it was life changing. If you haven't read it yet, GO READ IT! In the book, she talks about how being done is better than being perfect. That statement resonated so much with me. I spend forever on projects, which never end up getting finished, because they aren't "perfect" or "ready." I repeat the statement as sort of a mantra when working on projects now and I've completed more this year than I ever have! I'm telling you this, because some weeks of scrapbooking are not my favorite. I could spend forever reprinting photos and changing details. But done is better than perfect! This week is one of those weeks. I'm not sure what about it I don't like, but it's done. It makes me so happy to just call it done and flip through all the finished pages in my album.

There are something I really like about this layout. It was a little different, since I used a Design E pocket pages on the previous week, so I have two different pocket page styles. These few weeks of home renovations were crazy and messy. I kind of love that the layout this week captures that busy time!

This side of the album was easy, because I could only fit two photos. I printed eight 6 x 6 photos in two 12 x 12 pictures at Costco to get this size. The one of the tree is really the only photo with color in this layout, so I wanted to continue adding color in the details. I found a lime green banner in my supplies, so I stamped the date and stapled it with the tiny attacher.

This side of the album is a Design A pocket page, cut down to fit the 6 x 12 album. I tried experiencing with a Snapchat photo, because I forgot to take a regular photo of the first night in our new home. It's not my favorite photo, but I wanted to make sure that time was documented. I found a cute bright green card from an old Messy Box kit and used the type writer to type on it. It didn't turn out well, so I typed on paper and sewed it on top of the original card.

The bottom photo with all the text is my favorite detail of the page. Sometimes, I get nervous about using that many letters for one photo, but I love how it looks!

Have you read Big Magic? What message stuck with you the most? xo. Laura

October 27, 2016

Week 13 is easily one of my favorite weeks! It was one of my favorite weeks in real life, because it was the week that we got the keys to our first house! It was such an exciting time. We were so busy with the renovations that we didn't really do anything else, so all my pictures were of our house. I just made that the focus for this spread.

I decided to keep it really simple by using big photos. On the left, I used a Design A pocket page and on the right, I used a Design E pocket page. Since I only had two photos I wanted to use, the Design E pocket page allowed me to use Instagram style photos. It was fun to try something new and combined the two styles. Instead of cutting down the Design E pocket page, I just folded it over and added pictures to the inside. It stays folded over so well that you don't even need to clip it!

When there is a week or event that is special (or I don't have a lot of photos), I like to print one photo to fill out the whole layout. I think it looks cool and gives me space for journaling. On this one, I wanted the door to stand out, so I just added a few details. I used Thicker's letters to spell out 'our house' and letters from an old A Beautiful Mess kit to add my new address (blurred for the photos). Like every week, I added the dates for the week.

On the top photo, I just used alpha letters to document the day. On the bottom photo, I stamped the date and stapled on some vellum with journaling. I used phrase stickers from an old A Beautiful Mess kit. Phrase stickers are so much fun!

What do you think about using different style pocket pages? Do you keep it the same or switch it up? xo. Laura

October 24, 2016

This might seem like the most boring topic to layout, but shopping for flooring for our new home was such a big part of this week. It seems like we were at Floor and Decor every day. I wanted to much such I documented this special time for us.

In all the craziness of buying a home, I didn't take many pictures. I love using full page photos on weeks with few photos. It looks cool and helps fill out the spread.

I was so excited to finally used this March card from an old Studio Calico kit. The red in the card match the red in the sign on the building, so it worked out. Then I found another red card from a Studio Calico kit with little burst lines. I was able to fit small vinyl letters into the space. I love how these match together!

I continued with the red and navy theme by adding the navy Thicker's alphabet stickers, again, from an old Studio Calico kit to the top of the page. I typed on vellum and stapled it with the tiny attacher Keeping with the same style throughout the album adds consistency to the album and makes it faster to design each week. It feels great to use up old supplies! Sometimes it takes me a while to find the right layout for the supplies, but when it works out, it's the best!

October 18, 2016

This is another one of those weeks that started off challenging, but that I ended up really liking. At first, I made the two sides separate and they didn't flow well together. After I added that cake journaling card, it became one of my favorite layouts. I love how the gold alpha letters tied the yellow and gold from the other side together.

You can definitely see my love for vellum in this spread. I think almost every week has vellum in it. It's so versatile and added texture and details without distracting too much from the photos or patterned paper. It can also make the text easier to read, like on my bottom photo.

The weather was still pretty nice, so we made an effort to take Astro for lots of walk this week. I wanted to make sure those outings were document, since they were special. I kept the journaling card simple on this side by typing with the type writer on vellum and stapling it with my tiny attacher. I used kraft alphas from an old ABM Messy Box on the dark part of the photo, which added nice contrast.

I love the journaling cards on this side of the layout! I first made the birthday fun card by using alphas from ABM. I typed some journaling on vellum and, again, stapled it with the tiny attacher. I originally had a photo where the cake? card is, but the colors weren't great and I just wasn't happy with how it looked. I took the photo out and realized that this pink card was there, because it is the back of a journaling card I made for the next week. I was so much happier with how the looks looked together. The picture that was there was a photo of my mom's birthday cake, so I thought it would be fun to recreate it in a journaling card. I couldn't use my tiny attacher, because I didn't want staples going through the other side of the card. I decided to use a Kelly Purkey stamp set on vellum and use the gold alphas to hold the vellum down. I like the look and it's serving a purpose!

At our house, we have a tradition that you get as many candles as you are old, so it gets more and more fun each year. Every year, my mom takes a big breath and blows them all out. It's a story I wanted to include in my album. I was worried about all the text fitting, so I didn't want to start with alpha stickers. I decided to stamp it out on vellum, so I know it would fit and to add some contrast to all the black in the photo. If you're not sure if something will fit, try it on vellum and attach it to the photo! It makes it easier to redo or cut the pieces into smaller pieces to see if it will still fit.

Do you also have a love for vellum? Let me know if you have questions about it! xo. Laura

October 17, 2016

Some of my weekly layouts focus mostly on one day, like my week 10 layout. I didn't have very many photos for the week, except for Sunday. So I made that my focus. And it was a really great day, so it deserved the majority of the spread.

Grant and I went to Jerome for the day. We had lunch and walked around the town. It was so much fun!

I like photo heavy layouts, so I wanted most of the layout to be in photos. I used my favorite techniques of stamping and alpha stickers for all of the embellishments. I love that scrapbooking could be this simple. You don't need tons of stickers and embellishments to make a great layout.

At lunch, they served our drinks in mason jars, so naturally I had to take photos. Grant had a bit of an #instagramhusband moment while he, very patiently, waited for me to get the perfect shot. Luckily, he let me document this goofy moment as well. The drink stamp is from one of the past Kelly Purkey stamp sets and it's one of my favorites for documenting food adventures.

The bottom photo is of a swing set, but it didn't turn out very well. I used large alpha letters to tell our story over the photo. It might not make a lot of sense to other people, but scrapbooking is for you. Document your story in a way that helps you remember the details. As always, I added the date to the bottom. White ink is great for stamping on darker photos!

Like every week, I used my mom's old type writer to add the journaling for the week. I think it's so much easier to type with the type writer rather than figure out how to get the printer to print where I want it to print. I typed on vellum and behind the vellum, I used an "explore" stamp to stamp a repeating pattern. It's not always easy to see through the vellum, but it still added texture to the page.

I'm really happy with how this layout turned out. My album is almost up to date, but my blog posts are not. I'll be posting a bunch of scrapbooking posts upcoming up, so look out for those! xo. Laura

August 21, 2016

For some reason, when I first started week 9 I really struggled. It just wasn't going together the way I wanted it. I took everything except the photos out and started over. As soon as I had a fresh start, it all came together perfect. Sometimes just starting all over is the best way to go. I wouldn't have tried that stripe card other wise and this is what really brought the whole page together.

I realized I didn't have a lot of photos for this week, so I focused more on the journaling. I enjoyed Year of Yes so much that I knew I wanted to feature it on it's own card. The Kelly Purkey Reading List stamps are the perfect stamps for documenting my favorite books!

This layout is also a great example of getting bad photos to work. I love this photo of Astro waiting for Grant to get home, but it turned out so dark. Using the white vinyl stickers and white ink made the photo pop and turned a bad photo into an artsy photo. Not sure if artsy is a word, but I'm going to go with it. It looks artsy! The other bits of black and white really tie the whole thing together. I went from not liking this layout to this being one of my favorites!

I accidentally took the same styled photo with two different drinks this week, so I decided to roll with it and make it look like a series. Like most weeks, I added journaling to vellum and used the tiny attacher to staple it to a journaling card. The striped card and pink card are both from past Messy Box kits.

To get the books, I just stamped a book stamp with cream ink on plain white cardstock. I love that something so simple can make plain cardstock look so good. It was so easy to make and really looks great. One of our dogs, Jack, is always barking. I stopped by my parents one day and he just kept barking at me. I thought the black washi tape and vinyl stickers were the perfect way to document this silly dog and tie together this photo with the black and white photo.

The contrast of the colors with the black and white really make this week pop! I love how it came together! -Laura

July 11, 2016

During Week 8 of the year, the weather in Phoenix was amazing. I was outside almost every day trying to enjoy it before it got too hot. It was fun to capture my different hikes and walks in February.

I love the colors of this week. When I printed my photos, it was easy to see that orange would be a good color to add. Most of the pictures had orange, so that made it an easy choice. Also, blue and orange are contrasting colors and there was a lot of blue from the sky in most of the pictures. This helped make the pictures pop even more! I kept it pretty simple this week and let the photos tell the story.

I always like to add alphas, so I used a few different types to add as embellishments. I used a pretty card from a past Studio Calico kit, vellum, and thicker's letters to create a journaling card. Using the type writer on vellum is still one of my favorite techniques!

Cork embellishments were also an easy choice of this week, since they compliments the desert photos so well. Cork alphas and embellishments are fun to use, but be careful and plan out where you want them. They are very hard to remove once they are stuck, because the cork can fall apart.

That's it for Week 8! I've been getting a little behind on this project, but I'm still having fun with the weekly format! -Laura